Poll Tax May Not Apply to Women, Should They Get the Vote, April 29, 1920

From the News and Observer, as reprinted on the front page of The Watauga Democrat, Dedicated to the Interests of Boone, and Watauga County, Thursday, April 29, 1920

Women Think They Will Not Have to Pay Poll Tax

Advocates of woman suffrage who have been studying the question of whether women will be required to pay poll tax when they become voters say they will not have it to pay and that the matter can be easily understood simply by reading the constitution. The argument of the suffragists is somewhat as follows:

“Under the constitution of 1F68 there was a poll tax required ‘never to exceed $2 and to be applied to education and the support of the poor.’ The poll tax was authorized to be levied, however, only ‘on every male inhabitant of the State over 21 and under 50 years of age.’ There was no authority to levy it on males under 21 nor over 50 nor on females of any age. There is no authority therefore given to any officer to collect poll tax on any one except ‘males between 21 and 50.’ Constitution of North Carolina, Art. V, Secs. 1 and 2. The XIX Amendment, when ratified, will not affect his matter of poll tax, which is purely a State regulation restricted by the State constitution.

“The provisions as to poll tax were in the constitution of 1868 in which there is no requirement that it shall be paid as a prerequisite to voting. The article in the constitution on suffrage is Art. VI, (a different article from the one authorizing poll tax) and in the amendment to Sec. 4, Art. VI, known as the Grandfather Clause, there is a provision that any one promising to vote must have paid on the first of May previously ‘his poll tax for the previous year, as prescribed by Art. V Sec. 1 of the Constitution.’ It will thus be seen that prepayment of the poll tax is not required of very voter but only “as prescribed by Cons. Art. V, Section 1.” Turning to that article, it will be seen that what is prescribed is that males between 21 and 50 shall pay the poll tax. There is no authority to collect poll tax from anyone else nor to require any one else to pay poll tax. As to suffrage (Art. VI, Sec. 1) provides simply that male persons who are citizens or naturalized and over 21 shall be entitled to vote. The word ‘male’ in this section will be stricken out by the ratification of the XIX amendment.”